Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Troops Capture Sayyaf Executioner In Basilan Island

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Zamboanga Journal / 09 May) Army soldiers captured a notorious Abu Sayyaf militant linked to the spate of kidnappings and murders in the southern Philippine island of Basilan, officials said Tuesday.

Officials said Komoni Pael, who is also known by his nom de guerre as Abu Bara, was nabbed in the remote village of Kumalarang in Basilan's Isabela City on Monday after civilians reported his presence to the military.

Authorities implicated Pael to the 2001 kidnappings of more than a dozen farmers, many of them of later beheaded on the island, said Brigadier General Raymundo Ferrer, commander of military forces in Basilan.

"Pael is a notorious Abu Sayyaf member who was behind many kidnappings and killings in Basilan.There is an ongoing operation to track down other members of the terrorist group," Ferrer told the Zamboanga Journal by phone from Basilan.

Ferrer said the militant is also facing a string of criminal charges in Basilan.

Last month, Ferrer's group also captured an Abu Sayyaf militant Abdusalih Dimah in Kapayawan village in Isabela City after weeks of surveillance operation by army soldiers.

Dimah was implicated in the 2001 kidnapping of 20 holiday-makers, including three U.S. citizens -- Kansas missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham and Californian Guillermo Sobero, in the posh Dos Palmas resort in the central Philippine island of Palawan.

Manila linked the Abu Sayyaf to the al-Qaeda of Usama bin Laden and the United States listed the group as a foreign terror organization.

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